Per Petterson and Kirsten Thorup's fictions of old age well-being in the welfare state

Abstract

The article presents findings from the social sciences which suggest that quality of life and subjective well-being is higher in universalist welfare states such as the Scandinavian because of the system's generous supply of benefits and services for all citizens, not least the elderly, who report a very high degree of life satisfaction or happiness. This high degree of self-reported happiness is then contrasted with readings of novels by Per Petterson and Kirsten Thorup, which tell other more skeptical stories of old age well-being. The paper concludes that both kinds of sources (happiness statistics and fictional stories) contain valuable information about the nature of and our ideas about how to achieve the good life in the modern welfare state.